Book Beat Babes

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Helping The Family Business Today! by DL Larson

Every fall our business hosts a pork chop dinner for our clients. We host it at a local community center, hire caterers for the meal where they grill the chops on site. It smells delicious and tastes even better. We have everything catered except the desserts. Those I make. And for the last two years my daughter-in-law bakes for the event too! We're famous for our yummy desserts.

So instead of sitting at my computer today, I've been standing in my kitchen baking and watching old movies. It's been a good day. I hardly have the time to bake at all any more, so this bake-fest is my way of showing my family support for this event.

My house smells of pumpkin bars with a hint of chocolate and a twist of apple cinnamon. The chocolate-Heath bars await a cool whip topping which I learned long ago to apply once I've moved everything to the community center. The pecan crusted lemon bars will have a similar topping with crushed pecans to add at the last minute.

I want to dive into my apple slices. I keep telling myself no one will notice. So far I've refrained from cutting into them, but I can't promise I won't! The apples are from our trees in our back yard.

My pumpkin bars are cooling and as I wait to make the cream cheese frosting, I realized I forgot how to make the frosting. Does one use 8 oz. of cream cheese or more? Since I couldn't find my recipe - I blame one of my daughters for this - I clicked on my computer to find a recipe for cream cheese frosting.

Many options abound when searching for cream cheese frosting. I found recipes that called for two 8 oz. packages and one that called for 4 oz. No wonder I couldn't remember. I opted for the one 8 oz. recipe with the option of doubling it in case I need more.

My daughter-in-law made gluten free brownies for our few customers with food issues. She also made a maple brown sugar cake and pumpkin bars. All this with a full time job, a baby and preschooler. She's awesome and a great baker too!

I hope our clients realize how much we appreciate their business and making these homemade desserts has long been a highlight of the meal. It's my way, and my daughter-in-law's way of saying thank you to them. The empty cake pans will be proof that we accomplished our mission.

I just got home from the dinner - I tried the chocky heath bar - DELICIOUS!! I was too slow for the apple slices - wanted to cry! Everybody said it was yummy but I really, really wanted my own slice. I'm about to go and sample my lemon bars and the pumpkin bars will have to wait til tomorrow - :) My belly says 'no more!' Thanks for stopping by!!!